Edmonds-Woodway stuns Snohomish in volleyball

SNOHOMISH — Coming into Tuesday night’s volleyball match between Snohomish and Edmonds-Woodway, the Panthers appeared to be a powerhouse. They had lost just one match, a nonleague five-setter to Skyline, and boasted the Max Preps Washington State Player of the Week for a third consecutive week in senior Lanesha Reagan.

None of that seemed to matter to the Warriors.

Edmonds-Woodway turned in an all-around team performance and handed the Panthers their first Wesco 4A loss of the season with a 3-1 win by set scores of 25-23, 25-18, 12-25 and 25-22.

“We came out with as much fire and intensity as I’ve seen them play with all year,” Edmonds-Woodway head coach Nicole Bordeaux said. “There was just a lot of heart and team effort.”

The Warriors strong start was rewarded with a 2-0 lead after the first two sets, but Snohomish didn’t go down without a fight.

Edmonds-Woodway jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the third set and appeared to put itself in good position to sweep the Panthers before Reagan started a rally.

She recorded a kill to cut the deficit to 7-5 and set her up to serve. Reagan and the Panthers reeled off nine consecutive points to take a commanding 18-8 lead in the set. Reagan had two aces and sophomore Kyla Mennick had three kills during the run.

Reagan finished with 23 kills and Mennick had 12, six of which came in the third set.

“Kyla really grew up for us tonight,” Snohomish head coach Alex Tarin said. “She’s a sophomore and really took a huge step for us.”

Mennick closed out the third set with an ace to get the Panthers within a game of the Warriors, but the momentum didn’t last. Edmonds-Woodway took the lead early in the fourth set and never relinquished it.

Between the third and fourth sets, Bordeaux addressed the team and it seemed to get the Warriors back on track.

“I just reminded them that they worked extremely hard in the first two games and that they deserved it,” Bordeaux said. “They needed to know that. They needed to start from point one. Every point in (the fourth) game mattered. They just needed to own each and every moment on the court — and they did it.”

Trailing 23-19, Snohomish scored three straight to get to within a point at 23-22, but the Warriors called a timeout to regroup and came back to close out the match.

Edmonds-Woodway didn’t have a single player finish with double digits in kills, but they got a consistent team-effort from the entire frontline.

“This team isn’t about one star player,” Bordeaux said. “It’s about all 11 players on the team and they all contributed — even those that were on the bench. It was a game of heart and all 11 of them had it.”

Although Reagan recorded 23 kills, the Warriors did what many other teams have failed to do this season — prevent her from taking over the match.

“Every hitter in the league and everybody you play is defendable as long as you get to the right spot,” Bordeaux said. “They just went for it.”

After a slow start to the season, Bordeaux said confidence is high for her team.

“We are a team that kind of goes under the radar and we’re not talked about a lot, which we’re fine with,” Bordeaux said. “We also struggled in the preseason. We didn’t play very well. So we weren’t a team anybody was looking out for. Our confidence has just shot through the roof. We’re ready to play and ready to show teams that we are a good team and work hard and deserve to be in the top end of the league.”

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.